The pictures below show larger views of this JackNorworth Twice Autographed 1949 Take Me Out To The Ball Game Movie Music Song Sheet. The song “Take Me Out To The Ball Game” was written by JackNorworth in 1908 and it has been the most famous baseball song of all time. This song has boosted the sale of Cracker Jack, the pop corn confection, greatly at ballgames. This music songsheet was signed twice him on the front. It appears that JackNorworth was distracted while he was signing this 1949 movie songsheet, because he signed it to himself. He was 70 years old at the time of this movie. The autographs are clear, written in ink pen, and the inscription reads as follows:

TOJACKNORWORTHGOOD LUCKALWAYSJACKNORWORTH

The cover pictures the stars of the movie, Frank Sinatra, Esther Williams, and Gene Kelly, on a baseball coming from a baseball field. The sheet also has the songs “You Made Me Love You” and “My Little Girl” as well. The back page has advertising for modern piano playing music.The closed music song sheet measures about 9-1/8'' x 12-1/8''. It appears to be in excellent condition as pictured, but the fold is starting to separate at the top and bottom.

John Godfrey Knauff (January 5, 1879 - September 1, 1959), known professionally as JackNorworth, was an American songwriter, singer and vaudeville performer.

BiographyNorworth is credited as co-writer of a number of Tin Pan Alley hits. He wrote the lyrics to “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” (music by Albert Von Tilzer) in 1908, his longest lasting hit. It wasn’t until 1940 that he witnessed a major league baseball game. The song placed at number 8 on the “Songs of the Century” list selected by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Recording Industry Association of America.

His “Shine On, Harvest Moon” was a bigger hit at the time. There is some disagreement about his involvement in its creation. Broadway historian John Kenrick credits Edward Madden and Gus Edwards, while the family of Follies songwriter Dave Stamper claims he wrote the song while working as the pianist for Nora Bayes, the officially credited co-writer with Norworth. Another possibility for the music could lie with George Gershwin, who was also a piano player for this vaudeville troupe. Albert Koch, of Wisconsin, also an accomplished songwriter, claims to have written the song himself, and sold it outright for $50, forfeiting the rights to the song.

Born John Godfrey Knauff in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Theodore Christian Knauff and Louise H. (Pearson) Knauff, he changed his name to JackNorworth when he went into show business. His father was an organ builder and also a choir director at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Philadelphia. The theater was not a reputable career in that time especially coming from a religious family. Following a few years at sea, he landed in New York City at age 20 to embark on a show business career. In 1908 he married Nora Bayes, with whom he performed in vaudeville; the couple divorced in 1913. Following the Ziegfeld Follies (1909), Norworth appeared in a number of Broadway theater productions and was heard on early radio, such as his March 1928 guest appearance on Acousticon Hour.

Before Bayes, he had been married to actress Louise Dresser. He appeared in early sound films with his third wife, Dorothy Adelphi. He was portrayed by Dennis Morgan in the 1944 musical film Shine On, Harvest Moon (in which Ann Sheridan played Bayes as the love of Norworth’s life) and by Ron Husmann in the 1978 Ziegfeld biopic Ziegfeld: The Man & His Women. He is a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

JackNorworth died of a heart attack in Laguna Beach, California and is interred at Melrose Abbey Memorial Park in Anaheim, California, just across I-5 from the Los Angeles Angels ballpark. On July 11, 2010, a 3 foot tall black granite monument, paid for by concerned fans, was installed about 100 feet from Jack’s actual headstone.

Here is the original 1908 lyrics to the “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” song by JackNorworth:

Katie Casey was baseball mad,Had the fever and had it bad;Just to root for the home town crew,Ev’ry souKatie blew.On a Saturday, her young beauCalled to see if she’d like to go,To see a show but Miss Kate said “No,I’ll tell you what you can do”:Take me out to the ball game,Take me out with the crowd.Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack,I don’t care if I never get back,Let me root, root, root for the home team,If they don’t win it’s a shame.For it’s one, two, three strikes you’re out,At the old ball game.Katie Casey saw all the games,Knew the players by their first names;Told the umpire he was wrong,All alongGood and strong.When the score was just two to two,Katie Casey knew what to do,Just to cheer up the boys she knew,She made the gang sing this song:Take me out to the ball game,Take me out with the crowd.Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack,I don’t care if I never get back,Let me root, root, root for the home team,If they don’t win it’s a shame.For it’s one, two, three strikes you’re out,At the old ball game.

Below here, for reference, is the cast list for the 1949 movie “Take Me Out To The Ball Game”: